branding, brand strategy, web design, web strategy

january 23rd, 2024

In this blog post, I’ll define some of the most commonly used and heard brand terms as they relate to our work here at Hone.

If you’re like most of my clients and followers, you find yourself in a sea of brand and marketing terminology — unclear of what some of these things mean. I’ll admit theres a lot of jargon out there, and I’m all about efficiency and impact, so using brand + marketing language just to showcase my expertise isn’t it for me. 

Clearly defined terminology lends itself to an easeful collaborative experience, and clarity in both thought and expression of thought. Let’s establish how we use these terms here at Hone. 

Brand: A set of experiences, memories, stories, feelings and relationships that one builds around a company's product or service.
Brand Foundations: The building blocks of your brand, using a human-centered perspective...Your Brand's Story, Your Unique Selling Proposition, Attributes, Target Audience + Persona, Mission, Vision, and Values.
Brand Strategy: A plan for brand development and brand growth that comes after the brand foundations -- this can serve as the crux of your marketing strategy.
Brand Story: The narrative of your brand that calls upon the facts and feelings created by your business. Your brand story should encompass your vision for a brighter future, and how your brand plays a role in realizing that dream.
Brand Experience: All the interactions -- good, bad, or neutral -- that folks have with your brand.
Brand Loyalty: When a customer or client becomes a trusted user of your brand, and chooses your brand over other options in the market. Another great marker of brand loyalty is when those people invite other folks into your brand experience as well.
Brand Management: The making and upkeep of a brand's perception in the eyes of consumers, employing marketing strategies and activities. The goal of this work is to improve brand awareness, and continue to grow the feeling of connection between your desired audience and your brand.
Brand Audit: An assessment of your brand's health across all of its touch points, as well as its opportunities for interaction with customers and brand expression.

To foster a more widely accepted and recognized definition of these terms, I called on books such as...
💡 StoryBrand by Donald Miller
💡 Zag by Marty Neumeier
💡 Creative Strategy and the Business of Design by Douglas Davis
💡 Visual MBA by Jason Barron
💡 Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
💡 Graphic Artists Guild Handbook

So how do we use these things at Hone to help build a brand that attracted aligned clients and allows you to enjoy your work again again? 

At Hone, we work together with you to craft your vision, tell your business story, and build a Brand that connects. I like to remind my clients that a brand is what your clients say it is — it isn’t what you hope it is or dream it is — it is, for better or for worse, how it’s perceived by your audience. I also remind my clients that there’s a lot we can do behind the scenes to position your business so that it aligns in the way you envisioned. 

When we work together to build your brand, we start with your Brand Foundations, always. We take a holistic Brand Audit of your brand’s current state, and determine where we would like revise, refine or reposition certain components — so that it may more closely and more accurately align with your design audience. This could look like highlighting a set of unique factors, or differentiators, over others.. Or sharing a component of your Brand Story more frequently and boldly on your website.. Or choosing a color palette and typography suite that really embodies the sensations we’ve outlined in our work together thus far. 

There are so many levers we can pull when positioning a brand in the eyes of the consumer — it’s what makes this world of branding both creative and analytical for us here at Hone.

Once we’ve laid those foundational elements of your brand down: the story behind your brand, the messaging, the visuals.. We move onto one of the major components of your Brand Experience — Your website. We use messaging strategies and well-written copy to further position your business in the eyes of your desired target audience. We call on both colors and fonts, as well as brand imagery to further tell the story — and evoke a feeling or emotion about your brand, and your work as a whole. 

Your Brand Experience is largely what makes up your Brand. I encourage my clients to consider these questions when we’re working together:

- What do I want working with me to feel like?
- What is the primary emotion I want to leave my clients feeling?
- What would be the last thing I would want my clients to feel after landing on my website or working with me?
- If my brand were a store, what would it smell like when a clients or customers walked in? What kind of music would be playing?

We can then move into the long-term picture and blueprint for your brand’s growth — the Brand Strategy. This is the plan we map out that allows your brand to grow in the direction of your dreams and goals for the business. 

Our primary goal in all of this brand building, is to foster a sense of community amongst your audience where Brand Loyalty is undeniable — and folks are sharing about your business without you even asking them too. 

I meannnnn — what could be greater than connected with your ideal audience, seeing your work impact their lives, and feeling fulfilled all day long? Nothing. Okay maybe one thing.. How about that PLUS them sharing the word about your work with other folks in your ideal audience, marketing your business FOR YOU? That’s the dream. 

How do we keep this dream alive? We move from the building of the brand to the managing of the brand — Brand Management, where we’re just continuing to grow, evolve and refine as we learn more and more about our ideal audience. We continue to manage the perception of our brand in the eyes of our target audience, and improve it when possible. We do offer Brand Management retainer packages for previous clients, if you need a consistent collaborative partner in the evolution of your brand, your business and your work. 

I hope this was helpful in understanding the nuances to all of this industry terminology. My goal is always impact, efficiency and intention. I want my clients to feel empowered to take action in moving their business in the direction of their goals and dreams.